South African Court Lends Support to White Zimbabwean Farmers

26 February 2010

White Zimbabweans, who lost their farms under President Mugabe’s land reform program, are a step closer to suing for compensation.

Thursday, a South African High Court confirmed a ruling made by a Southern African Development Community Tribunal that the farm seizures were illegal. The decision came after a South African civil rights group, AFRIFORUM, took up the case of the white farmers several months ago.

Attorney Willie Spies, who’s handling the case, based his arguments on the SADC tribunal ruling.

“The ruling was made,” he says, “in November 2008, firstly, that the land reform policies of Robert Mugabe were unlawful, that they were in contravention of the SADC treaty and that they were racist in the fact that land had been taken from white people and just given to black people without compensation.”

President Mugabe disregarded the ruling, Spies says, “which left the farmers with quite a frustrating situation.” While a court had ruled in their favor, there was no way to enforce its ruling.

A step forward

AFRIFORUM took up the case to try to have it “registered “in a South African court, meaning that a court would recognize the SADC tribunal ruling. That happened Thursday at Pretoria’s High Court.

“The moment it becomes registered and enforceable in South Africa,” he says, “it becomes possible to exercise or execute this judgment against Zimbabwean-owned assets that are situated in South Africa. And that is exactly what we did.”